Get ready for a night out with some metal acts as Threadbare Productions is presenting the Rocktober Carnival on Saturday night at Studio Q.
Carnival attire is optional for the evening with Halloween around the corner.
Thunder Bay Ontario bands The Fixer and Teknosis top the bill. Other bands performing include 7 Sinners and Dual Black.
The Fixer and Teknosis are on the Ugly Knots tour. Vic Sin plays guitar and also does electronic programming for The Fixer.
“We are mildly theatrical and our label has given us the title of melodious darkened pop metal,” Sin said.
The band first released an album in 2020, but have been touring in support of their latest standalone single, “It Will End Tonight,” and their latest 2023 album, “You Lie”.
Sin said the group out a Rob Zombie tribute band, but has since branched out.
“We also did a Rammstein tribute as well with a very similar collection of people and then we eventually started to want to do our own original music,” he said. “(We wanted to) do some sort of classic larger than life persona heavy rock group that was sort of just in the vein of Rob Zombie or Rammstein.”
He said they brought in some of their own influences to shape the sound.
“The person that was singing for that, we actually ended up moving to guitar and then we were looking for a singer,” Sin explained. “That is when we came across Melladonna, who was actually playing in another tribute group that was doing Evanescence covers.”
The band is composed of Melladonna on vocals, Sin on guitar, Basuzu on bass and Null on drums.
“It was cool because the foundation of where The Fixer grew from, I do believe does have those three starting points,” Sin said. “I think that comes across in our music…. I find like there is a lot of crossover of music fans that will listen to all three, but it’s not common to hear of those three as a band’s starting influence.”
Sin said the band used that as starting points and he began creating music with Melladonna, Basuzu joined a couple of years ago and Null is the most recent addition.
Band has done large tours previously in 2023 in Northern Ontario and Brandon, Manitoba.
“Then the fall of that year, we ended up doing two weeks heading west of Thunder Bay,” he said. “We went as far as Penticton, British Columbia, and we played the Underground Wasteland Festival out there. Then we had dates in all the provinces between Ontario and British Columbia.”
In 2024, the band did a 40 date tour that spanned from Vancouver to Newfoundland. The band has been to Prince Albert, but has never played the city.
“We took an off day in Prince Albert on our tour last year, but this will be our first time playing in Prince Albert,” Sin said.
“We spent, I think, two or three days actually in Prince Albert and we are very excited to play in Prince Albert. We’ve found that we have really enjoyed going and playing northern cities.”
He said that one of their favourite places to play is The Pas, Manitoba, another northern outpost.
“We’re excited to come and play somewhere else that is just not like a lot of places,” Sin said. “Other than a couple of select cities everybody sticks pretty close to the Trans Canada.
“I feel like the shows are always so meaningful when we go north or just somewhere where there is not always a lot of shows, but I will say, from what I have seen online, Prince Albert seems to have quite a bit of music which I think is amazing for the geographical location.”
He said that the band being from Thunder Bay in Northern Ontario helps make them appreciate the northern towns.
“It is a very isolated city,” he said. “There is not a lot. We are the one thing that pops up along the highway pretty much between like the Sudbury, Sault St. Marie area and until you get to Winnipeg. There are some lovely towns around here.”
This summer the band played Kenora and Dryden and have played Marathon. They are playing Fort Frances this Thursday on this tour.
“We do try and play some of the places that are really quite small in our surrounding areas because I feel like (in) the smaller places, the shows are just more meaningful,” Sin said.
Sin said that the band is looking forward to playing Prince Albert.
“We’re very excited to be playing in Prince Albert for the first time at Studio Q. We hope people have taken the time to check out some of our music videos from our album Your Lie and maybe check out the couple of new singles that we’ve released in the last couple of weeks.
“We hope people come out and have a good time with us and maybe get dressed up for the carnival theme for Halloween season.”
Doors open at 7 p.m. with bands starting at 7:30 p.m. Advance tickets at Skin Junkies are $10. Tickets at the door are $15 or $10 with a costume.
The Ugly Knots Tour with Teknosis and The Fixer next plays The Rendezvous in Edmonton.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
